


For I Have Sinned

by taichara



Category: Rockman Zero | Mega Man Zero, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-19
Updated: 2013-09-19
Packaged: 2017-12-27 01:09:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/972560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/pseuds/taichara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone has to have a moment of enlightenment eventually, even the founders of so-called utopias.  And some have to tear the scales of ignorance from their own eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For I Have Sinned

  
Another day; another day in an endless stream of unmarred perfect days, and not for the first time the founder -– some said saviour, others deity -– of the tall-towered paradise of Neo-Arcadia wondered if another day would ever make a difference.

 

_It’s been so long since anything changed_

 

It was too early, yet, for meeting with the Speakers and then attending the evening’s procedures of the Court. Faced with long empty hours again, X left the console he had been listlessly browsing and drifted across the wide airy chamber to the balcony outside. Leaning against the brassy rail, he raked a hand through nape-length black silk curls and cocked one eye towards the sky-dome high overhead.

 

_You’d never guess that wasn’t real sunlight. Still working just as we hoped --_

 

With a twinge, he closed his eyes and spread delicate wings in the false sunlight’s warmth. ‘We’; yes, there was no ‘we’, now. And without ‘we’ the days dragged on unmercifully, endless discussions and Court rulings and the long, long hours … He was called on seldom, now, though the people still adored him. The Council ran smoothly, the city was a safe haven, and his experience was seldom needed.

But there was something …

 

_I could call on Phantom. He may have been requested in the Outer Ring but I know he isn’t far …_

 

There was no ‘we’.

There hadn’t been for nearly a century now, peace bought at a price he still couldn’t accept. And now even his own children drew distant as their duties absorbed them in the same way his own position was changing him.

A slight breeze skimmed past and ruffled his hair, causing X to half-lid his eyes and tuck wings close to his shoulders. _Those_ had been the Speaker’s suggestions; a simple modification, a symbol for the population -– of what exactly, X wasn’t certain now –- and a recent thing. Not like his busters, long since removed.

 _’Why do you need them?’_ , they had asked. _’If you stay armed, the people will think there is still a threat, that your city is no protection ..’_

__

 

_And after that -– after I agreed -– Phantom was made into my ‘guardian’.  
As if I couldn’t defend myself …_

_But they did make sure of that …?_

 

The breeze made him shiver suddenly, and he turned to go back inside.

 

_There was a reason behind disarming. I’ve read it; it did have more merit._

_… Why did I allow them …?_

 

Extending one wingtip slowly, X stared at it in new-sprung confusion as the question jabbed through his lassitude. Why, indeed? And what else had he permitted …?

The days and nights blurred together.  
It was an endless cycle of so very little, and it made it so hard to care –-

X stopped dead in the middle of the room, frozen with shock.

He wouldn’t, couldn’t, have been more chilled if he’d been dashed with ice-water til the soft white coat of his uniform was soaked to the tails.

 

_’So hard to’ …_

_When did it get so hard to care? Why -– don’t I, any more?_

_What’s been happening --_

 

Flinging himself into the high padded chair of his desk, X called up the records of the years as his hands flew over the hard-light of the console; when that wasn’t fast enough for him, he connected directly to the system; and hang Phantom, if he protested. Head of Intelligence he may be, but X had priority clearance -– and could hack circles around his shadowy son, if it came to that.

He was still reading when that selfsame shadow child came to prepare him to the Council meeting and the trial to come after. Reluctantly X disconnected, and prepared himself for an endless monotony of talking about nothing at all.

-*-

As night fell, tucked deep within his own quarters again X felt somehow numbed and horrified at once.

The meeting had been bland, inconsequential; on any other day, X would have drifted through the formalities with little concern and less memory. But this time he paid sharp attention to the commentary flying about the neon-lit Deliberative Chamber -– and he noted how his queries were subtly deflected, his opinions tucked away unheeded.

That, alone, would have been enough. But the worst had been yet to come.

Closing his eyes against he still-fresh memory, X leaned heavily against the cool metal wall -– heedless of the sharp twinge of discomfort –- and squeezed his eyes closed against the revulsion already crawling back up his throat.

How –- just how –-

_[Awash in the cold enamel and frosted chrome of the Judgement Hall._

_There they stood, waiting: Cerberian, his six canine eyes fixed on the accused; Foxtar, waiting to assess the charges; Mantisk, the executioner. All eight stood in their places, as X presided from their midst, an angel sent to judge and condemn …_

_The accused was a petty bureaucrat, one who kept the institutions of the city moving. One who spoke out against the outrage of their condition, against their so-called ‘ruler’ who caused such misery for his own kind._

_Tried and condemned for conspiracy and treason._

_Maverick. ]_

And that was not the last of it, oh no.

Freed to the duty of presiding over the Court, X had retreated to his quarters with such speed Phantom had been on edge for hours, and no amount of reassurance could persuade him otherwise; and, even hours later, he lurked just outside the door. X returned to the records, now tearing through any data that came to hand … and what he found appalled him.

Finally he stopped, exhausted and heartsick, resting his forehead against the coolness of the monitor.

The worst thing -- the worst thing –-

_[X sat forward slightly; his green eyes fever-bright against the pallor of his face, the white and gold of his formal uniform._

__

 

_“Let the accused identify himself.”_

__

 

_“TM-43.”_

__

 

_Green eyes blinked, once._

__

 

_“And your name?”_

__

 

_“I have no name.”]_

 

No name … no name …

That simple statement -– four simple words -– told him more than any research he could muster.  
And in the dark X despaired over the monstrosity of his own creation.

He was cut off; without influence, without means of affecting change for those same people -- _people!_ \-- he was callously destroying …

… Or, maybe not. He flexed his wings, almost experimentally.

 

_Useless, pretty things, too small for flight. But --_

 

In a breath, he made his decision. And he knew the city and its secrets –- and its weaknesses -– better than any other.

 

_There are other like TM-43. There must be._

Children –- I’m sorry

 

When Phantom entered, alarmed at the silence, he found nothing -- but the balcony shutters flailing in the night-wind, and X vanished from the earth.  



End file.
